Page 139 - Winning The Credit Game Bundle (CK Patrick)

3. I advise that you not be overly optimistic on this
section. It may be tempting to do so if you are trying to
entice investors or lenders, but this business plan is
also for you. You will do better if you underestimate
your earnings and subsequently find ways to cut costs
and improve your profit margin than if you
overestimate your sales and profit margin and spend
more money than you make.
4. So be conservative here. If you want to make your
financial projections as impressive as possible, do that
by finding ways to increase your profit margins
through optimization and innovation. Not by
artificially pumping them up with dubious hopes and
assumptions.
5. If you already have quarterly reports, use these to
illustrate how much your business is making and
how much you expect it to grow when new
products, locations, or marketing strategies are
added.

If you do not already have quarterly reports, project as accu-
rately as you can what you expect your business revenue to look
like based on a realistic projection of your costs, profit margins,
and the number of customers served over time.
It is not unusual for new businesses to take losses in their
first two years, so if you cannot show profit right away, that is
not the end of the world. But you will want to convincingly
show that you can create a substantial and growing profit
margin within two years—for your sake and that of the banks
and investors.
You can download sample business plans to help you see
exactly what to do for free from the website of the U.S. Small
Business Administration at:
https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/
write-your-business-plan
Whew! That chapter was a doozy. But after completing it,

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